The United Nations’ human rights chief wrapped up a four-day trip to Ukraine on Wednesday, capping off his trip with a chilling new report about the number of civilians killed in the early days of Russia’s invasion.
According to the report, Russian forces killed at least 441 civilians in the early days of the invasion in three key regions – Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy – with the actual number of victims expected to be much higher.
In a statement following the release of the report, Matilda Bogner, the Head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said the killings in the report could constitute a war crime.
“There are strong indications that the summary executions documented in this report may constitute the war crime of wilful killing,” Bogner said.
All told, the number of civilians killed in the conflict has topped 17,000, including more than 400 children, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“However, we know that the real toll is far greater,” Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the U.N. Security Council this week.
“I fear that there is one long, bleak winter ahead for Ukraine,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Wednesday in Ukraine. “The consequences of the war on the enjoyment of human rights for people in the country have already been devastating, and the prognosis is very worrying.”
Roughly one-third of Ukrainians have been driven from their homes since the fighting began, Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II; 7.9 million have fled the country, while 6.5 million people are internally displaced within Ukraine, according to the U.N.
And as a result of the invasion, 17.7 million people now need humanitarian assistance and 9.3 million require food and livelihood assistance, Türk said.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the fighting continues. Missile attacks rocked Ukraine after three Russian airbases were attacked earlier this week. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility, and the U.S. says it neither encouraged nor enabled Ukrainians to strike inside Russia.
“We have been very clear that these are defensive supplies,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price. “We are not encouraging Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. Everything we are doing, everything the world is doing to support Ukraine, is in support of Ukraine’s independence, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity.”
In Washington on Tuesday, lawmakers in both parties met with Ukraine’s delegation in a closed-door meeting, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described as a “classified briefing on the state of play in Ukraine.”
Approval of additional funding to support Ukraine’s war efforts remains on the to-do list for lawmakers during the lame-duck session. The White House requested nearly $40 billion in new funding from Congress to support Ukraine last month. Schumer said that he hoped Democrats and Republicans see the importance of supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
“I hope that my colleagues recognize how funding the government is inextricably tied to supporting Ukraine while protecting American national security here at home,” Schumer said. “The two are tied together.”
